He that hath clean feet?

 We have started three weeks of studying Psalms.  This week I chose two chapters to read in Hebrew, Psalms 23, and 24.  Both are super familiar in English, but all Psalms are poetry and it is very hard to accurately translate poetry. The translator has to make choices whether to match the literal or the figurative meaning more closely. 

In Psalms 24, I found an interesting translation choice.  In verse 3-4 in the KJV it says: 

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?

or who shall stand in this holy place?

He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart. 

 

 The most common Hebrew word for hand is,"pronounced "yad  יר   but that is not the word used in this passage. The word used here is כף   pronounced "chaf".  It means the palm of your hand or the soul of your feet. The question, then, is why did the translator assume we were talking about hands and not feet?  I did a survey of some of the other places the word is used.  It is used to mean palm of the hand more often than soul of the feet.  Also, when it refers to feet, it often has the other word for feet, רגל         nearby so that it basically says, the "palm" of the feet. An example is when the dove came back to the Ark because it couldn't find a place to rest theכף" " of his feet. (Gen 8:9). The translator probably made the best choice he could.  Still I couldn't help but think of all the lovely imagery that could be found if they had translated it "feet" instead of "hands." 

There are a lot of scenes in the Old and New Testament where feet play an important role.  Abraham washed the feet of his holy visitors when they came to tell him he would have a son in his old age.  Moses had to remove the shoes from his feet because he was on sacred ground.  Throughout the Old Testament, there are accounts of someone kneeling at someone else's feet to show submission.

So, why did people need their feet washed in the ancient world?  They wore open, sandal-like shoes and their feet would become covered with dirt, dust, and probably refuse. It would have been really nice to have that washed away. It was considered an act of humility to wash someone else's feet. In the New Testament, Jesus washed his disciples feet just before he was betrayed.  When Peter didn't want the Lord to wash his feet, Jesus said, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me."  

Why was it so important for Jesus to wash his disciple's feet? (John 13: 8) Of course, by washing his disciple's feet, Jesus taught the importance of humility and service.  There may have also been a symbolic meaning. We learn in Genesis that "dust" is a symbol of fallen man (Gen 3:19).  Just as Jesus, by humbling himself, cleansed his disciple's feet from dust, He would later that night, by humbling himself before his father, cleanse their sins through the atonement, remove from them the consequences of the fall, and enable them to eventually stand in the "holy place."

It, therefore, seems pretty fitting for the passage in Psalms 24:4 to read, 

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?

or who shall stand in this holy place?

He that hath clean feet, and a pure heart.

How would they become clean? Through Jesus' willingness to humble himself enough to make them clean.